Sadé Miller ’23, a geography major from Guilderland, New York, graduating in December, is passionate about sustainability. “It’s a topic covered in nearly all my classes: How can we make cities sustainable for decades to come? How can we find sustainable energy sources? How can we reduce consumption and waste as a society?”

For her Showcase project, Miller focused on transportation, a major contributor to global warming. She selected a large European city, Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and a large U.S. city, Los Angeles, to compare their sustainable transport capabilities in relation to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”

“My mom was born and raised in Finland,” Miller says, in explaining why she chose that locale. “I’ve been there at least 30 times, and I’ve experienced their transportation system firsthand and seen how different it is from the United States.”

Miller used data, remote sensing, and GIS mapping technology to visually compare the transportation designs of Helsinki and Los Angeles. First, she met with her advisor to determine the research questions she would pursue; then, she worked with a librarian to access the more than 200 online databases available at Milne Library. They found some 50 scholarly articles, journals, and papers related to her research questions. Miller spent the following weeks reviewing the material and creating an outline for her poster presentation.

What did she find? “One of the biggest differences between Finnish cities and U.S. cities is the way they are designed. Finnish cities are designed for walking and biking, with sidewalks everywhere and bike paths on every major road,” she says. “Most families have only one car and are willing to walk or bike a few miles to get where they need to be. For longer commutes, Finland has a rail system that runs to all major cities and nearly 20,000 bus stops across the country. Finland is better at providing options, especially for those who don’t have cars.”

In the United States, she found, the biggest roadblocks to sustainable transportation are affordability and accessibility. “Finland uses the Whim app to allow people to easily buy tickets for public transit, rent bikes, order taxis, etc.,” she says, and tickets are more affordable than in America. “U.S. cities, however, are car reliant. Walking and biking are more dangerous and less feasible due to how spread out everything is. Trains are not commonly used either. For longer distances, most people travel by car or plane.”

Miller hopes people in our car-centric culture will think more about sustainable transportation and take inspiration from countries like Finland that are utilizing more environmentally friendly solutions.

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06 de May de 2024

06 de May de 2024

06 de May de 2024

06 de May de 2024

06 de May de 2024

06 de May de 2024